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The Cockade City 



Of The Union 



Declared by President Madison in bidding farewell and God-speed 
to the company of Petersburgers known as "Canada Volunteers," 
on their return home after giving valiant service in the war of 1812 



Compiled and Published by W. B. Harrison, Petersburg, Va., May 19th, 1W. 



Virginia Printing and Manufacturing Co 




|ETERSBURG, VIRGINIA, is at the head of tidewater on the Appomattox River. 
From this city railroads radiate in all directions. Three of these are great trunk 
lines which here have a common point of intersection. Its harbor can be entered by 
coast steamers. 

As a field for military maneuvers and army exercises, the country adjacent is un- 
surpassed. There are open fields and wooded land ; level ground, abrupt hills and 
deep ravines. Good running water is in abuudaut supply everywhere. Vegetables 
and farm products can here be obtained fresh and at low prices. As to the health- 
fulness of the location, no army was ever as free from disease as the two that faced 
each other here in 1864-' 5. It is a splendid place for niobolizing troops and for 
storing munitions and supplies, as from this point they can be rapidly distributed by laud and water in any di- 
rection at all seasons of the year. 

In the war of 1812, a company from Petersburg, known as the "Canada Volunteers, " whose complete roster 
we can show you, so acquitted themselves that they were publicly thanked by President Madison in an address 
in which he dubbed this city "the Cockade City of the Union," a title ever since held in high esteem. 

To the Mexican War Petersburg sent two companies of volunteers to serve under General Wiufield Scott, 
himself a native of this county and resident of this city; and veterans of this war are still engaged in business here. 

In 1<>42 an Act of Assembly established Bristol Parish, embracing the territory on both sides of the "pleas- 
ant river Appamattuck" up to the falls, and in 1<>45 the assembly ordered that Fort Heurybe built at the Falls, 
as a protection against the Indians. This is the first mention of fortifications at Petersburg, a feature for which 
the place was destined to have a world-wide reputatiou. 

The ruins of the Brick Church, built and used by Bristol Parish, are still standing in Blaudford Cemetery, 
owned by the City of Petersburg, and they and their beautiful surroundings never fail to stir the enthusiasm of 
the antiquary and to awaken to sweetest song the genius of the poet. 



The following lines from an 


unknown 


pen, were found one day written 


on the walls 


in a neat and scholarly hand 


Thou art crumbling to the dust, old pile, 




How doth ambition's hope take wing, 


Thou art hastening to thy fall, 




How droops the spirit now; 


And around thee in thy loneliness 




We hear the distant city's din, 


Clings the ivy to thy wall. 




The dead are mute below. 


The worshippers are scattered now 




The sun that shone upon their paths 


Who knelt before thy shrine, 




Now gilds their lonely graves; 


And silence reigns where anthems rose, 




The zephyrs which once fanned their brows 


In days of "Auld Lang Syne." 




The grass above them waves. 


And sadly sighs the wandering wind 




Oh! could we call the many back 


Where oft in years gone by, 




Who've gathered here in vain — 


Prayers rose from many hearts to Him, 




Who've careless roved where we do now, 


The Highest of the High; 




Who'll never meet again, 


The tramp of many a busy foot 




How would our very souls be stirred, 


That sought thy aisles is o'er, 




To meet the earnest gaze 


And many a weary heart around 




Of the lovely and the beautiful, 


Is still forever more. 




The lights of other days. 




It was erected 



i 1735 and was the prir 
It belongs to t 



OLD BLANDFORD CHURCH 
urch of Bristol Parish, which was established 
of Petersburg and is now used as a Confedera 



i 1642 by an act of the 
: Memorial Chapel 



The following lines from an unknown pen, were found one day written 
on the walls in a neat and scholarly hand 



Thou art crumbling to the dust, old pile, 

Thou art hastening to thy fall, 
And around thee in thy loneliness 

Clings the ivy to thy wall. 
The worshippers are scattered now 

Who knelt before thy shrine, 
And silence reigns where anthems rose, 

In days of "Auld Lang Syne." 

And sadly sighs the wandering wind 

Where oft in years gone by, 
Prayers rose from many hearts to Him, 

The Highest of the High; 
The tramp of many a busy foot 

That sought thy aisles is o'er, 
And many a weary heart around 

Is still forever more. 



How doth ambition's hope take wing, 

How droops the spirit now; 
We hear the distant city's din, 

The dead arc mute below. 
The sun that shone upon their paths 

Now gilds their lonely graves; 
The zephyrs which once fanned their brow? 

The grass above them waves. 

Oh! could we call the many back 

Who've gathered here in vain— 
Who've careless roved where we do now, 

Who'll never meet again, 
How would our very souls be stirred, 

To meet the earnest gaze 
Of the lovely and the beautiful, 

The lights of other davs. 




OLD BLANDFORD CHURCH 

It was erected in 1735 and was the principal church of Bristol Parish, which was established in 1642 by an act of the House of Burgesses. 

It belongs to the City of Petersburg and is now used as a Confederate Memorial Chapel 




Interior of Blandford Church showing Confederate Memorial Tablet and Memorial Windows of Missouri, Virginia and the Washington Artillery 
of New Orleans. Other Southern States expect to place windows of like designs 



PETERSBURG is the only city iu this country that was besieged for nearly ten months, during which time 
the lines of circumvallatiou were drawn tighter and tighter, until only a single narrow bridge was left 
over which Lee withdrew his decimated baud of veterans under cover of night, April, 1865. It is the only city 
in this country where a portion of the 60 miles of entrenchments that girt it with a triple line are still to be 
seen, marking the spot where heroism was the ordinary duty of every day. Here the Federal army, recogniz- 
ing that their process of attrition would be a matter of months, pitched their camps, extended their lines as 
fortune favored them, and built and equipped a railroad of twelve or fifteen miles to facilitate communication 
along their widely deployed front. Here thirteen pitched battles were fought outside the breastworks, and al- 
most daily there were sharp engagements, which would have been accounted memorable battles had not the 
attention been absorbed by and the mind attuned to greater things. Here 150 old men and school boys held at 
bay a division of cavalry till, surrounded, the last of them were shot iu the back while they continued to repel 
the repeated charges made on their front, Here 250 men having been told that it was necessary to hold an open 
earthwork of heavy profile, repulsed the three assaults made on it by fully 5,000 men, and held the assailants 
back for hours; when a fourth assaull having been made from all sides, the work was entered from the rear, 
and the captors found only 26 men left stanning, firing the guns loaded and passed up to them by their wounded 
comrades lying on the ground. Here 800 men, mostly Petersburgers, finding that they alone stood between 
their daughters and an eager enemy of 10,000, embracing many negroes, elated with partial victory, charged 
and drove them from the works by the very impetuosity of their attack. 

During the continuous battle that raged around Petersburg for more than nine months, the shifting of bri- 
gades, divisions and army corps, common iu military usage caused this front to become familiar ground to 
more individual Federal soldiers than any other battle field in the country; aud the fact that final victory here 
crowned their arms excites in them the laudable wish that the scene of their service be preserved as they saw 
it; while nearly every soldier of the Army of Northern Virginia could take you to the spot where he stood and 
saw deeds of valor that equal any on the brightest pages of history. 

If the military students of Europe think it worth while to come here to collect material for their text-books, 
is it not true wisdom on the part of this country to hand down intact to her soldiers of the future this most im- 
pressive volume on the Art of War? 



fclere, on the rampart of the very forts that once flamed with destruction, the very fields that were once 
swopl as with a leaden cyclone, the very trenches that ran red with blood, they will not only learn the most 
lasting lessons of military strategy, but drink in deepest inspirations of patriotism. We can all be proud of 
what was done by either army, because it magnifies the force necessary to overcome, on the one part, and the 
devotion necessary to endure, on the other. 

Here Lieutenant Jacob Donty and Sergeant Henry Rees of the 48th Pennsylvania, names not mentioned in 
history, performed a service that entitles them to be known wherever courage is not held in contempt. The 
mine did not explode at the time set, though the fuse had been lighted promptly. Minutes of anxious suspense 
drew out their ever increasing length till the tension became unbearable, when these two brave men volunteered 
to enter the tunnel leading to the mine and find the cause of failure. In the face of almost certain death, with- 
out the stimulus of surrounding combat, they performed this daring deed, found and relighted the extinguished 
fuse and groping their way back to the mouth of the tunnel reported that the explosion would take place in 
eleven minutes. 

Here Lt: Col: Bross of the 29th U. S. so distinguished himself by personal bravery, waving his regimental 
colors and calling on his men to rally around him under a withering fire, that his name was given a formidable 
fort that stands to-day almost as well preserved as it was when evacuated forty years ago. 

Here Captain Brondbent of New Jersey fell pierced with eleven bayonet wounds, of whom it may be s,aid, 
quoting Froissart, that no man died that day with more glory, though many died and there was much glory. 

It is estimated that nearly half a million of individual Federal soldiers, including the armies of Butler, 
Sheridan, Sherman and Grant, were at different times in and around Petersburg, and the train loads of survivors 
and their friends that come here now to visit the scenes of their conflict and to get, if they can, permission to 
erect memorials to their commands and falleu comrades, show how proud they are of what they have accomplished. 

Yes, give me the land that hath legions and lay- For out of the gloom future brightness is born, 

That Cell of the conflict of long vanished days. As after the night looms the sunrise of morn. 

Yes, give me the hind witli a grave in each spot For the graves of the brave with the grass overgrown, 

And names in the graves that shall not be forgot Are ever the foot-stool of Liberty's throne, 

Yes, give- me the land of the wreck and the tomb, And each single wreck in the war path of might 

There's glory in graves, there's grandeur in gloom. Has become now a rock in tile Temple of Right. 







> E 
Q 2: 



S I ft. 





B 




THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER— July 30, 1864 
Painted by Elder for General William Malione, who commanded the Confederate troops that made the famous charge in the crater fight. It is now owned 
by the Westmoreland Club of Richmond, Va. It has been said that around Petersburg during the war "more men were killed than the British have lost in the 
last one hundred years, including the wars with Napoleon." 




LEES HEADQUARTERS 
Here General Lee was quartered during the Siege of Petersburg, until the extension of the lines to the right made the Turnbull place on Cox Road more 
convenient to his army. 




i this house. Lincoln held Ins la 



GRANTS HEADQUARTERS 
ew with General Grant on April 3rd, 1865. It is now the residence of Mr. Simon Seward 




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Now shows battle scars from shelling i 



CENTRE HILL— Residence of Mr. Charles Hall Davis 
i 18M-65. Reception given President Taft in this home, BY THE CITIZENS OF PETERSBURG. May 19, I9(W 




This residence occupies the exact location of the Tower and is built of part of timbers from the Tower, 
undisturbed possession of Fort Fisher, which is remarkably well preserved after forty-five years. 



Note the peaceful gunners and battery now 




Thisifc 
asltaken. 



the Boydt 
; not taken 



'lank Road, 
:il all the am 



CONFEDERATE FORT GRIGG 

■ Petersburg, and was held by Harris' Mississippi Brigade April 2. 1865, 



/hich repulsed thirteen charges before it 




THE BOSWELL HOUSE 
This house is in front of the Federal and Confederate line, on the Church Road, and is the only one standing that 
armies passed in full view of it, and was exposed to the big gunning from Fort Fisher and Fort Grigg, 1864-65. 



I standing during the'Civil War. both 




House owned by Rev. Richard Ferguson, near Darvills, Dinwiddie Co.. Va., in which a band of ex-slaves, ( 
Army, plotted a massacre of the whites in April. 1865. The commander of the Federal troops stationed at Wilsoi 
notified, and he sent over a detachment of soldiers, who surrounded the house, shooting all that tried to escape : 



ammanded by two negro soldiers of the Federal 
Depot on the Norfolk and Western R. R., was 
nd capturing the r£st 




NATIONAL CEMETERY 
Grove National Cemetery, Dinwiddie Co.. Va., where are sleeping 6,212 U. S. and 3") Confederate State Soldii 
Notice the young Johnny, under the protection of the flag, who is now loyal 




•EAST HILL" 
This is all that remains of "Bollingbrooke,',' the British Headquarters during the Revolution. Here Cornwallis. Arnold. Tarleton and 
during the spring of 1781. and here died General Phillips of the British Army, described by Jefferson as "the proudest man of the proudest 



Phillips were quartered 




LAFAYETTE'S HEADQUARTERS 
From this hill on the north bank of the Appomattox River, in the spring of 1781. Lafayette shelled the city of Petersburg, .hen ta the ha 
General Phillips of the British Army, who lay dying at Bollingbrooke, complained that his enemies would not even let h,m d.e ,n peace 



ids of the British. 




CENTRAL STATE HOSPITAL. Dr. William 

Re-established on the present site in 1885. Located one mile west of Petersburg on electric < 

1.400; Number acres in grounds and farm 500. Buildings, lawns and pleasure grounds cover sev 

plant nearly half a million dollars. Old Fort Whitworth on the property, and Fort Gregg 

This shows the loyalty of the Old Dominion to her unfortunate citizens 



F. Drewry, Supt. 

ar line. Number officers and employees 140; Number of patients 
:ral acres. Annual appropriation from State SU1.000.00. Value of 
breastworks and other points of historic interest near-by. 




Baskerville & Jc 



i Grist Mill, situated on the Nottoway River, in Dinwiddie Co., at Cha 
This is illustrative of the abundant water power mills so 



' of one hundred barrels per day. 



bundant in the 




pkksidunt of the united states 
HONORED GUEST OF THE CITY OF PETERSBURG, VA. 

MA.Y 19, 1909 



We acknowledge 
K. Bishop, 

valuable- his; booklet 



